Secondary menu

Main menu

Lakeview Lit Syndicate #38: Sing, Unburied, Sing

June's book club pick is Jesmyn Ward’s majestic novel Sing, Unburied, Sing! Complimentary wine and sweets from Vanille Patisserie will be available to sip/nibble at 6:30PM, and the discussion will start promptly at 7.

About the book:

Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

Sing, Unburied, Singgrapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power, and limitations, of the bonds of family. Rich with Ward's distinctive, musical language, Sing, Unburied, Singis a majestic new work and an essential contribution to American literature.